Philip Hammond confirms UK will LEAVE single market following Brexit

PHILIP HAMMOND has confirmed that Britain will come out the single market as part of its decision to leave the EU.

The United Kingdom is set to leave the EU single market while negotiating access to a free trade zone, the country's newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer said.

Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari, the finance minister, who ruled out an emergency budget following the Brexit vote, insisted working with the EU would still be important.

He announced: "We will come out of the single market as a result of our decision to leave the European Union.

"The question is how we negotiate with the European Union not from the point of view of being members of it, but from the point of view of being close neighbours and trade partners of it, how we will work together in future.

"I would like to see us negotiating access to the single market for Britain's businesses so we can go on trading our goods and services into the European Union market.

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Hammond vowed to take all necessary measures to protect the economy

"And indeed enjoying the benefits of consuming European Union goods and services here as we do now."

When pressed on when Britain would trigger the formal divorce procedure, Mr Hammond said yesterday: "That's a decision that we haven't made yet."

He explained: "That's the $64,000 question and that's what the negotiators to set out what the parameters are, what the different moving parts are and how we approach our neighbours in trying to find a deal that works for them, addresses their political red lines as well as our own political red lines.

"Because the vote on the 23rd June to leave the EU has also created political red lines for us in that negotiations and our neighbours have to respect that too.

"We've now got the key players who will be involved in this decision-making process in place and when the Prime Minister has finished making her appointments later today I am sure that we will sit down and start to talk about Britain's negotiating strategy and how we are going to take it forward.”